How to shut down wet weather “gloomies”.

Spring in the Pacific Northwest can be summed up in one word….wet. Our skies are grey and our grounds are soggy. As we admire spring break pictures from our friends in Mexico and Hawaii, it is easy to get a case of the “gloomies”. For those of us accustomed to these next few months, we know there is a magnificent (though short lived) Pacific Northwest summer just around the corner but what do you do to bide your time until those clouds part?

Get Moving: Exercise has a tremendous impact on mood and stress levels, it also doesn’t have to be through sweating it out at the gym for an hour. The goal is to get on your feet and get your heart rate to elevate. The rainy weather can make going outside an issue, so some alternatives would be chasing your kids around the house, spring cleaning or window shopping.

If you have children, you know that their energy levels are 100% and then 0% when they finally fall asleep. There is no in between. Therefor they can be the perfect motivation to get moving. Play a game of tag or do some squats as you pick up the tornado of toys they leave in their wake.

Spring cleaning is a huge workout. From climbing up and down to reach the top of those cabinets, to doing 12 loads of laundry in one day, you are bound to work up a sweat. My favorite is the garage sale. I sweat through three shirts AND made money that day! I felt great!

Have you ever had an 80 something year old woman fly by you while you stopped to ogle outside a designer store in the mall? That was a mall walker and they are genius. If you ever have trouble with getting bored during a workout or just hate the gym setting, walking a shopping mall at a brisk pace is a great alternative. You are indoors, you have nonstop entertainment and it’s a great excuse to come home with those jeans you kept talking yourself out of.

Vitamin D: There are so many perks to living in this beautiful region but an unfortunate downfall is the lack of natural vitamin D. Residents of this area have a notorious deficiency which can impact health and mood in a variety of ways. One major indicator would be sluggishness. If you are very tired even after a full nights sleep and not the normal level of tired, but the kind of tired where you fall asleep with your eyes open and standing up at a rock concert kind of tired, you may have a deficiency. Your diet can help you bring in more vitamin D and supplements are available if you don’t get sunlight for weeks, but did you know that chiropractic can actually help your body receive the vitamin D you take? Dr. Todd Riddle goes into that more here.

Drink a lot of water: You hear our docs say it over and over. “Drink more water!” There is a reason for this! Getting your daily water intake can eliminate so many of the issues we face daily. Fatigue and depression are at the top of that list. By just increasing your water intake daily to 2.5 liters or more for 3 days, research has proven you will experience a lift in mood, energy and mental focus. So get guzzling, folks!

Take some time to yourself: Dreary days can be monotonous. We wake up, get ready, go to work, pick up the kids, make dinner, put the kids to bed, sleep and repeat. Then on the weekends we are cooped up indoors watching Netflix all day and listening to our kids running in circles, bored out of their minds. Not a very positive environment. A little time to yourself to rest and recharge will give you the boost you need to power through the week and still have enough energy to make the weekends fun regardless of the weather. It doesn’t hurt to take a fishing trip out to a secluded lake with a buddy or maybe a day trip to the spa…(the Orchard House has a new sun sauna to give you that boost of vitamin D!) Sometimes we just need a little time to find ourselves again.

If you just can’t take another day of drizzle, try one or all of these tips to help ease the gloomies this spring! If all else fails there’s always the Bahamas 😉